In the UK today, there are approximately 800,000 people living with dementia and more than 6 million people who are indirectly affected by it, either by living with a dementia patient or caring for a close relative or friend who does. Talk to these people and the emotional strain quickly shows.

Reminiscence therapy – the use of written and oral life histories to improve well-being – is a well established treatment included in dementia care. The therapy makes use of items, objects, images and influences from an individual's past to encourage short-term memories by stimulating long-term ones.

A key shortfall of traditional reminiscence therapy, however, is that the dialogue between the carer and dementia patient can be extremely narrow and can quickly become repetitive. Another is that while most people know where their parents or grandparents were born and the places they lived or visited throughout their lives, they will be largely unaware of the little details that might trigger long-forgotten memories.

Take Ron, who is suffering from advanced dementia which came on quite suddenly six months ago. His wife, Jean, was advised to try reminiscence therapy but quickly became frustrated when she showed Ron photos of their wedding, their daughter's first day at school, their son's football trophy and got not even a flicker of recognition. Ron sensed Jean's exasperation and became all the more agitated.

The Memory Box Network, a new project funded by Nominet Trust, seeks to address this problem by using social media and a digital platform to collate and supply a wide selection of content that is relevant to the dementia patient's age, experiences and geographical location. This might include general images, audio clips or videos from their area of work or their social life such as local streets, shops and landmarks.

With only a small amount of information about the person living with dementia, carers can start to use Memory Box. Initially the system offers content defined by the decade and geography based on the initial user settings. The carer can rate this content in relation to whether it has struck a chord with the dementia patient and the system then uses the rating to suggest other content that will be relevant to the defined user; the more information and feedback, the more relevant the content it offers.

Carers can request more content across the Memory Box Network and also notify others caring for the dementia patient as to what has worked. Family members who live at a distance can contribute relevant content and stay up to date on how their loved one is responding.

The scheme enables families and carers to create a personal profile for the dementia patient; draw on a vast online library of images, audio and video; and base the reminiscence therapy around material that is relevant to the patient's life.

Social entrepreneur Scott Downie came up with the idea when he saw how carers didn't have time to collect relevant content to use in reminiscence therapy. "As a digital producer, I saw the potential of drawing and tagging content from the internet. I was particularly excited by developing a tool that builds stronger relationships between generations."

In Ron's case, it turned out that he took the same bus route to work every day for 40 years. A quick search identified a photo of a building that Ron passed thousands of times during the course of his working life. On seeing this, Ron lit up and started talking about the fun he used to have with his workmates. After only a 30-minute session, he recognised his wife for the first time in six months.

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